Middletown III was a replication of research done in
1924-1925 by Robert and Helen Lynd in Muncie, Indiana. Middletown III
included the Family Roles Survey (1977), the High School Survey (1977,
1989), the Community Survey (1978), the Government Services Survey
(1978), the Kinship Survey (1978), the Neighborhood Survey (1978), the
Religion Survey (1978), the Women's Occupational Survey (1978), and
the Recreation Survey (1982). Middletown IV was a 1999 replication of
two of the most im... (more info)

Middletown III was a replication of research done in
1924-1925 by Robert and Helen Lynd in Muncie, Indiana. Middletown III
included the Family Roles Survey (1977), the High School Survey (1977,
1989), the Community Survey (1978), the Government Services Survey
(1978), the Kinship Survey (1978), the Neighborhood Survey (1978), the
Religion Survey (1978), the Women's Occupational Survey (1978), and
the Recreation Survey (1982). Middletown IV was a 1999 replication of
two of the most important surveys that had been conducted in 1924 and
1977: the Community Survey and the High School Survey. The High School
Survey (1977, 1989, and 1999) queried respondents about the number of
years they attended Muncie schools, membership in extra-curricular
activities, sex education, curriculum, grades and schoolwork, books
and magazines read that were not assigned, and future plans post-high
school. Respondents were also asked about close friendships, work
outside of school, activities on Sunday, and their opinions about
their relationship with their parents, and several statements about
personal, political, and social issues. For the Community Survey
(1978, 1999), respondents were asked about their residence and living
in Muncie, as well as job history, reasons to work, and the advantages
gained from working. The survey also asked questions of respondents
about spouse employment and vacation, household roles, activities, and
expenses, as well as close friendships, important qualities in boys
and girls, educational plans for their children, and opinions on
special topics. For the Family Roles Survey (1978), respondents were
asked to express their opinion in regard to raising a family in
Muncie, spouse role performance and expectations, marital
satisfaction, and close friendships. The Government Services Survey
(1978) asked respondents about their participation in the 1976
presidential, 1974 Indiana congressional, and 1975 Muncie city
elections, service in the armed forces, and housing. In addition, the
survey asked respondents for their opinion in regard to unemployed
citizens, welfare, the Muncie community, and government programs, as
well as their awareness or use of certain programs. The Kinship Survey
(1978) asked respondents to identify where and how long they lived at
a location in relationship to Muncie. In addition, respondents were
asked for demographic information about their spouse, mother and
father (their own and their spouse's), siblings, cousins, and
children, their relationship and interactions with them, including
their participation in different types of activities together, giving
or receiving of goods or services, and frequency of communication. The
Neighborhood Survey (1978), queried respondents about their residence
in a Muncie neighborhood and their intent to remain at or move from
this location. Opinions were sought about the neighborhood and
particular facilities visited, attended, or used most often.
Respondents were also asked to identify whether relatives or friends
lived in Muncie, the location of their residence, as well as their
spouses' work location. Respondents scored their interactions with
their closest relative, and identified relationships with friends and
work associates. In the Religion Survey (1978), respondents provided
information about their participation in political elections, what
activities they enjoy, as well as their opinion in regard to quality
of life, marital satisfaction, racial inequality, women's liberation,
and their response when encountering a problem. In addition,
respondents were asked about their religious behavior and
philosophies, including practices such as prayer, fasting, and the
teaching and study of different religions. For the Women's
Occupational Survey (1978), respondents were queried about their views
in regard to quality of life and marriage including number of times
and age married, the status of the marriage, number of children born
in each marriage, marital satisfaction, relationship with spouse,
causes of disagreement with spouse, and household roles. Pertaining to
occupation, respondents answered questions about job training and
requirements, job satisfaction, and job discrimination. They also
provided their opinions about how work had affected their
relationships with their children and spouse. For the Recreation
Survey (1982), respondents were queried about attending professional
events, participating in sports and household activities, visiting
particular recreational locations, owning recreational, electronic, or
entertainment equipment, and playing a musical instrument. In
addition, the survey posed questions about membership in a group or
organization, vacations, religious behaviors, and books or magazines
read. Respondents also provided their opinion about gender attributes
pertaining to societal roles. Major demographic themes that may appear
in one or more of the surveys include age, gender, race, birthplace,
occupation and employment, income, social class, education, marital
status, religious preference, number of friends or relatives in the
city, number and ages of children or siblings, and household
composition, as well as the topic of organizational memberships,
political affiliation, time spent per day watching movies or
television, and number of newspaper or magazine subscriptions. For the
Community Survey (1978, 1999), Kinship Survey (1978), Neighborhood
Survey (1978), and Women's Occupational Survey (1978), in addition to
occupation, the data may also include Duncan Socioeconomic Index
(SEI), Siegel Prestige, or industry classification codes.

These data are restricted from general dissemination. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete an Agreement for the Use of Confidential Data, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research. Apply for access to these data through the ICPSR Restricted Data Contract Portal, which can be accessed via the study home page.

(1) For information pertaining to each part, please see
the "Processing Notes" section in the ICPSR codebook for each dataset.
(2) For Parts 1, 2, 4, 8, 9 and 12, the restricted version of the
codebooks contain open-ended text. (3) For this study, the data were
collected by Louis Hicks, Research Director, The First Measured
Century.

Methodology

Sample:
inap.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2007-09-13

Version History:

2007-10-16 A public-use version of the codebook for
each part has been added. Also, the restricted version of the codebooks
have been updated.